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rf: Thank you Edward for agreeing to this phone interview. We promise not to keep you to long.
EVH: Not a problem to talk to some real fans for a change, you know, that have given me the support from the start. You've treated me well, so I'll treat you well.
rf: We're just glad to have a relationship with simply the greatest guitar player of all time. Now onto the questions, and we're going to focus on what's to come, if that's alright.
EVH: (chuckling) don't they all.......
rf: What does the next year hold for the band Van Halen?
EVH: We have new songs completed in theory. Just some things I've been working on since 2000. We have some time scheduled to record them, and we are going to do things a little different this time. We have some recording time set up in Canada, just to break up the monotony of it all, and to keep away from the photo hounds. This next album is going to be a return of sorts, and we just decided as a band not to stick around here and listen to all the bullshit. For once, we're going to let the album take care of itself. We just had to put the past behind us, and move on, and I realize that a lot of our future is tied up with the past. Our goal as a band has always been to put out the best music for the fans, but it has to be fun for us. Sometimes you need to step away to realize what that is.
rf: Forgive me for asking this Edward, but who is the "we" in Van Halen?
EVH: I'm the one working on the songs, and have booked the venue to record them. But the songs I've been working on aren't necesarily of the traditional variety for me over the past 10 years or so. Most of what I do is throw down some stuff, sometimes in the studio, sometimes on the toilet (laughs) but this time, I grabbed some stuff from the past five years or so that I already had some vocal tracks for. You know...just to fuck around. I thought, "Damn, there's something there." And a couple of hours later I came out with a couple of songs that had that vintage feel, but were so damn new that a previous hazy feel kinda cleared itself out. Sometimes it's about the music, sometimes it's about feeling good, and sometimes it's about just doing the right fucking thing. In this case, it was two of the three, and I think, the right two. Life is a learning process, and I've done a lot of fucking learning the past 10 years.
rf: Since you didn't answer the original question, are you saying you aren't willing to say who's in the band at this stage?
EVH: That's why we're heading to Canada for a bit. I'm sick of answering that question. Van Halen is what it is, a great band. Like I said, I'll let the album speak for itself.
rf: So the album is going to be worked on this year?
EVH: The timetable has it being completed by the end of the year, with a release early next year. If they have a date specifically for it, I'm not sure when it is.
rf: Or won't tell us?
EVH: Something like that.
rf: Just to go back for a moment, what was touring like last year with Sam?
EVH: The tour was outstanding for me personally. I hadn't been on the road in five years, so I was able to get out a lot of pent up agression (chuckling)...and a lot of people on the buses were like, "What the fuck?" The good thing was that there was enough separation that I didn't have to listen to the bullshit. I'd just throw on the headphones, or grab the cell and talk to the kid, or the girl, and let the rest go. The music was about the fans. The tour was about the fans and the band. Anything else was about me. I shut out the shit.
rf: So you all got along?
EVH: We've all learned that it's like a marriage (lauging), some things are good, some things aren't. You talk to much, and you end up living in the studio............
(at this point, after only a couple of minutes, EVH said that was it for the interview for now)
rf: Any parting shots for your fans?
EVH: The more things fucking change, the more they stay the same.
rf: Thank you Edward for taking the time for our rag.
EVH: We'll do it again....
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